Reporting to more than Two Bosses

Life in the corporate world is full of challenges and opportunities. Only a smart employee knows how to turn a difficult situation in to a profitable one. There are various rules and regulations in a professional world that one has to follow for proper running of the business. It is the responsibility of the employee to follow the decorum of the office for smooth running of official work. There are a number of aspects that need to be handled regularly and reporting to the boss is one of them.

Sending reports to the boss is an essential part of the job, some send weekly reports, some send daily reports. Reporting makes office task more manageable and organized, the situation become difficult for the employee when he has to send a report to more than one boss. It not only adds more responsibility, but make the job more tedious. Sending a report to multiple bosses is a new trend, earlier there was only one head, now employees have to send reports to multiple executives and department heads. To make this task easier all you have to learn is to have a little bit of patience, positive approach and excellent communication skills.

Reporting is the form of communication between the employee and authorities; it is the regular reporting that helps the authorities in assessing the situation and plan future strategies for the growth of an organization. Reports work as a bridge between the boss and the employee. Some times when all your bosses are abroad and each is supervising your work on a different aspect it becomes essential to manage your reporting with utmost care.

Last few decades were revolutionary for organizations. The trend of globalization, recession, expansion of trade and commerce has highly affected organizations. There are a number of MNC’s having their HQ and regional offices at different places; it is the responsibility of the employee to keep the concerned authorities informed about the latest happenings and plans.

Sending the reports to more than two bosses could be tricky and if there is any issue between an employee and executive or between the executives, then the situation becomes peculiar for the employee. One of the best ways to handle such a situation is to discuss it clearly with your boss, set the priority and keep your boss informed about the other tasks as well.

Another problem that an employee can face in reporting to more than one boss is to prioritize the delegated task. Ask your boss to set the urgency of each task so that the employee can meet the deadlines without missing any important task. Send a request sheet to the boss and ask them to prioritize the task and rate every project’s priority on a scale of 1 to 5. The request sheets also help during employee review by providing written validation of all the work an employee had accomplished and for whom. Use that data to chart the percentage of time an employee devoted to each manager and the month-to-month workload fluctuations.

It’s crucial that the managers make sure the employee understands the bosses’ expectations of her. If the managers aren’t providing that information, then the employee should seek it out.

Instead of asking for orders learn to take decisions, evaluate the tasks, set the priority and try to finish it in a given time, it will show employee’s interest towards the job and their dedication to the job. Seniors like employees who take initiative and take responsibilities. It helps in the smooth running of schedules.

Employees should have some autonomy in decision making, it will make the task easier as they don’t have to rely on seniors for each and every step and could make speedy progress.

Managing more than two bosses becomes a nightmare for the employees if the two bosses do not get along well or they do not communicate frequently with each other. In such conditions it becomes difficult for the employee to keep the balance and keep both the bosses contented.

Though serving a number of executives is not easy, but it provides lots of exposure and opportunity within the organization. It gives employees the chance to learn different working styles at a time and how to manage multiple tasks at a time.

If employee’s relationship with either boss is less than stellar, it is advised that the employee should research past business cycles to find circumstances similar to the ones they’re facing. “Two people with opposing viewpoints cannot both be absolutely right. You’ve got to apply your own business sense to the situation and come up with what you think is the best course of action”.

Each executive has a different working style and methodology, working with different bosses will give you a chance to learn. You will never gain such experience and knowledge from books or from universities, practical work experience teaches a lot, if you are new to the field learn from the experience of others and broaden your horizon. Face every tricky situation as your new lesson and try to learn from each experience good or bad it will surely help you in evolving as a successful professional.